Panthers win third at state model bridge contest

By Jeff T. Miller
Special to the Herald Times
RANGELY — The Rangely High School Bridge Building team continued its tradition of success at the Professional Engineers of Colorado state model bridge contest with a third place finish in region two last Saturday.
The team members who traveled to the Denver Federal Center’s Bureau of Reclamation facility were seniors Hastin Boulger, Matt Herrera, Hannah Walz and sophomore Jason Stults.
The team also tested the alternate/and unofficial bridges of team members (and siblings) senior Brittany Mackey and sophomore Alex Mackey. Hannah, Matt and Jason’s bridges officially counted toward the Panther team’s efficiency. Individually, Jason’s design was seventh overall, Matt’s eighth and Hannah’s 12th. If Boulger’s design was official, he would have placed fourth.
This year’s model bridge design was constructed of 3/32 by 3/32 inch square dimension basswood. The mass of the design could be no more than 25 grams, the measurements to have a maximum span 300 millimeters and length of 400 mm and be no more than 200 mm tall.
The loading deck had to be constructed to accommodate a 50mm by 50mm plate at the bridge’s centerline of the bridge. The bridges were judged for their adherence to the specifications and their efficiency, all Rangely bridges passed with flying colors. Team Rangely’s bridge masses at the state competition ranged from 16-22 grams. The efficiency of each bridge is calculated by the load in grams at failure divided by the mass of the bridge.
To appreciate the work and task accomplished, consider the following example: Hastin Boulger’s bridge had an efficiency of 3,600.
The team also toured the Bureau of Reclamation’s laboratory and research facilities and witnessed in the materials lab portion of the lab, the crushing of a 0.90 meter diameter, 1.3 meters tall and several thousand kilogram concrete cylinder with 11.2 million Newtons of compressive force.
They also toured the fluid-dynamics portion of the lab, with many real time lab models and prototypes being observed in action. Columbia River fish ladder models, dam-turbine cavitations and erosion studies were also observed. The Bureau of Reclamation’s lab facility tests Pacific drainage related structures (bridges, dams, canals, fish ladders, flood control impoundments, reservoir structures, irrigation canals and their materials) from anywhere west of the Mississippi River.
Before returning to Rangely, the team celebrated with a barbecue beef and pork dinner.
They would have toured the Colorado School of Mines campus and museum/labs, but headed over the “high-country” toward Rangely in order to outrun Saturday night’s Pacific storm.
In addition to the forementioned students, bridge club participants were seniors Jake Dubbert, Mark Hinaman and David Roberts; and sophomores Michael Dillon, Patrick Phelan and Eric Sisneros.
All bridge club members were either part of the “academy bridge building class” and/or the physics course. Each student is recognized for his/her dedication, hard work and team effort while learning more about structural engineering and bridge design and testing. We do have a strong nucleus of sophomores returning for next year’s team.
The team would like to thank the RE-4 school district, RHS administration, the RHS office personnel and district transportation personnel for their support of this educationally important and successful trip.